


Feed the Beast

by shutupimshakira (Sniperdoodle)



Series: Yogscast Minecraft!Fairy Tail AU [1]
Category: Fairy Tail, The Yogscast
Genre: After An Epic Hatventure, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Natsu Lucy and gray are in hatfilm's positon, Takes place in feed the beast, Though for them it isn't really epic, Yogscast Minecraft!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4193328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sniperdoodle/pseuds/shutupimshakira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the painful events of their 'epic adventure', Natsu, Lucy and Gray are left in a new world. This world's filled with new, diverse possibilities, but they 're all covered with scars and wounds let from their horrifying adventure. Before they can even think about a fresh start, they need time to heal and to build up again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feed the Beast

**Author's Note:**

> JESUS I love this AU. I wrote an explanation about it in it's entirety on tumblr (http://sniperdoodle.tumblr.com/post/121967780774/i-just-want-to-talk-about-a-yogscast) but if you don't want to read that I'll explain it to you here.
> 
> So, basically, one day I realized that Natsu fits into Alsmiffy's place, the magical pyromaniac that sometimes destroys everything. That lead me to realize that Gray could be Ross, as the black-haired builder who's obsessed with one material (ice/marble). That leaves Lucy into Trottimus's spot as the smartest one that has to keep everything together. Everything else spurred out from there, but that's not the point.
> 
> So, this isn't really with the Yogscast's Minecraft personas, just the Fairy Tail characters being placed into their situation. So the background is that Minecraftia is really just a clump of empty, universes with the same physics. I mess around with actual Minecraft physics because I'm treating them as real people, not just Minecraft characters. 
> 
> Natsu, Lucy and Gray all ended up on the same world (Forsaken Lands) and have been together, by themselves, for over like five years, until they find the main world where everyone else is. (The order of their worlds go like this: Forsaken Lands=>Skylands=>XBox World #1=>XBox World #2=>1st Skyblock=>An Epic Hatventure=>Feed the Beast=>Hat Pack/HatCorp (it's around the same time, but Hat Pack starts earlier). The Red Mist Guy that appeared at the end of Skylands (and was supposed to lead to Origins) is the same as the Overseer (the guy that controlled where Hatfilms was going in An Epic Hatventure), and in this AU, they're Mard Geer (Zeref is Israphel). 
> 
> I guess that it, to get everyone caught up no matter what side you come in on. I hope you enjoy. I had fun writing this.

Lucy opens her eyes, blinking in the bright light stretching down through the trees, warming her skin with its gentle touch. Lucy feels like it's been years since she's felt sun like this. Everything aches though, especially her left leg, and pain shoots through with every movement. She hears her name being called.

"Lucy!"

"Lucy, are you awake?"

"C'mon Lucy! Wake up!"

"Mh-I-whu?" Lucy has a hard time making words, trying to make sense of where she is and what exactly happened after . . . after . . . she doesn't want to think about it. Two figures lean over, blocking her view of the sun, so she can see clearer now, "Natsu? Gray?"

"Hey, you okay?" Gray asks.

"I . . ." Lucy tries to sit up, but she winces, "Ow."

Natsu moves first, moving his arm behind her to help her up. She looks between Gray and Natsu-they both look terrible. It looks like they haven't washed in days, dirt ingrained into their skin, mixed in with the dried blood. Their clothes were in tatters, blood crusting around all of their wounds, bruises turning black. Lucy supposes she looks the same after what happened.

"I guess that's a no," Gray says with a small laugh.

"Did we-?" Lucy manages. She doesn't have that much energy even though it feels like she's been asleep for ages.

"Yeah," Natsu breaks into a full smile, a smile that seems brighter than the sun. Tears start to pool in the corner of his eyes. "We won. We don't have to deal with that shitty red spirit anymore- _Mard motherfucking Geer_."

Lucy begins to smile herself, evolving into a full laugh. She's never laughed at Natsu's silly accent and his use of profanity when reading the evil man's messages, but she can't stop now. She feels the tears following, happy tears, tears of relief, to feel fear for that pain.

Natsu's laughing now too, it's loud and harsh but she's so glad she can hear it. Tears trail down his cheeks, making a clean path through the dirt and blood. Gray silently chuckles, adding his own tears though they're quieter, and not as urgent. None of them can stop laughing, laughter that Lucy hasn't heard in months. The months of trekking through dark forests, confusing dungeons, and empty deserts. Laughter than Lucy wished could brighten her day as the land around them seemed to have the life sucked out it, and laughter she wished should could have heard to reassure her that they could survive after every time one of them almost died.

Lucy raises a hand, one that covered in considerably less blood than the other to wipe away some of her tears. Her hand's trembling as she realizes why she's crying and laughing. She manages to croak out through her laughter, "We're alive. We're really alive."

Gray's and Natsu's laughter die down, as well as their own. They look at each other and Lucy, her tears falling harder.

"We're really all alive," she says.

Gray and Natsu quickly move toward, and she's glad she can feel them, and she knows they feel the same. Even though they all look disgusting-they're covered in dirt and blood-it's nice to feel their skin brush against each, for their arms to curl around each other for their fingers to intertwined, for their lips to brush across each other's cheeks and lips, to finally be able to do this after months on their "epic adventure". To finally be able to love without fear of losing one of them after all of them finally confessing their feelings. Lucy manages another coughing laugh as they sit in the middle of a forest, just in a pile of limbs, in between heaving sobs that let out the relief after staying strong for so long. They're all crying.

They stay like that for a while until Natsu accidentally bumps his legs into one of Lucy's, a shot of pain strikes up and down from the spot, and she lets out a painful shout.

"Your leg," Natsu says with wide eyes. They all forgot about her broken leg, the leg that Lucy hurt during the last leg of their adventure. After that, Lucy had to hobble all the way to the end, either leaning on Natsu or Gray. Natsu quickly apologizes, "Sorry Lucy! I forgot and I'm sorry about that too!"

"It's alright," Lucy says, trying to hide the pain, touching Natsu's cheek with her hand. She smiles even though it hurts like hell. She's glad to hear his voice, though it's full of concern.

"We have to get moving," Gray states, looking up at the sky. The sun is starting to lean to the west. "It'll be night. We have to find you medical attention, Lucy, or at least find a place to hide down before monsters spawn."

The word 'monsters' sends a chill down her spine. Lucy can see the floods of monsters as they walk across the large, taunt chains in the sky; as they walk through the dead caverns; as she clings to Natsu and Gray, limping along to make it to the end.

"Let's go," Lucy agrees.

Gray and Natsu get up, both holding out their hands and then blushing because they both did it at the same time. Lucy can't help but smile, their relationship is new, and it's still taking time to get used to it.

Gray steps back first, so Lucy takes Natsu's hand and he carefully helps her up, his face tight with concentration, the only slack being his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth. Once she's leaning on her good foot, he wraps her arm around his shoulder, and she shifts her weight to him.

"Where too?" Natsu asks.

"Let's just head north," Lucy suggests.

"Sounds good," Gray agrees.

The sun slowly sets, ticking down like a bomb that would set off waves of mobs coming to attack them. They walk for about an hour, Lucy shifts to Gray at one point to give Natsu a break. It's an amazing new world, with new biomes Lucy has never seen before, and new creatures too, out in the wild that she had seen in zoos before even coming to Minecraftia. Natsu is fascinated by the various bears he's seen, but the wonder stops when they hit snow.

"Holy fuck, I didn't think we'd hit the ice caps this early," Natsu looks around, stomping down the snow a bit and rubbing his shoulders. They all didn't have clothes good enough for the cold-Lucy had a thin white coat, but it obviously isn't going to provide her any warmth.

"Look over there," Gray nods his head in the directions of a large mountain. In between the icy trees and the sharply rising rocks, there is a bit of green.

"Alright," Natsu says. They start to head east, walking in between a valley in the mountain that Gray had seen. On the other side its warmer, just a strolling green plan with smooth hills and a river cutting through. Further beyond is a forest with trees of red, orange and yellow. They walks up a small hill to immediately find a village.

"This is perfect," Natsu says, looking happily at the quaint village below them.

"Let's just get down there and into a house," Gray adds. Lucy looks up at the sky. It getting closer to night.

"Right, find a big house though," Lucy advises.

It takes a while to get down the ridge they stood on, due to Lucy's leg, but Natsu eventually just picks Lucy up bridal style and carries her down to the village that way. Lucy insists that he put her down once they reach flat land, though she knows that the villagers don't care about that. They just look on with curious eyes over their large noses, hands tucked inside the sleeves of their robes, and finishing the day's business before the sun sets and they have to retreat inside.

"That houses," Lucy picks one. It's big, and even has a garden in the back. They can pick up some carrots quick for something to eat, though it may not be the most pleasant meal.

"Look alright," Gray agrees. The sun's touching the horizon, and the villagers begin to flood into their houses. "Let's get inside."

They stumble inside, their legs sore from walking today and before. They collapse on the ground, the only furniture offering any comfort in the house are a table and chairs. There's a crafting bench and a furnace thankfully, and an empty chest. There's still plenty of open floor space.

"I hope the villager that lives here doesn't mind us," Lucy sighs, sitting down in one of the chairs.

"It doesn't matter because it ain't gonna be able to get in," Natsu explains, as he locks the door and moves a shelf in front of it for good measure.

"Rude," Lucy states.

"They can stay with their buddies," Natsu argues. He looks to Gray, who's sticking his head out that back door to the fenced garden. "Anything good?"

"Wheat and some carrots," Gray steps back in. "I can already see a zombie though."

"Let's just sleep," Lucy sighs. She's been feeling tired all day, only the promise of staying alive after that horrible adventure kept her going.

"We don't have a bed," Gray grumbles, looking around the room. "How do these villagers sleep?"

"Standing up?" Natsu guesses. "But we don't have a bathro0m either."

"We can clean up in the river tomorrow," Lucy suggests.

"We'll also have to go and find some wool to make beds. There were some sheep off in distance in the plains," Gray adds. "And we need supplies."

Natsu slumps onto the floor, leaning against the wall, "Let's go to sleep."

"Yeah," Lucy agrees with a yawn.

"Where?" Gray asks.

"On the floor," Natsu explains. "Like we did in the dungeons."

Lucy remembers leaning up against cold cobblestone, exhausted after trying to solve puzzle after puzzle. The only time they found a comfortable place to lay was in the one mansion . . . but even then it had the eerie feeling of death and age hanging over it. Here, now that it is over, would be much better.

"Okay," Lucy tries to stand, and Gray runs over to help her.

"Don't push yourself," Gray says in a soft voice. Natsu sits up straighter and at attention, ready to move. She doesn't say anything because it’s true.

She and Gray walk over to Natsu, and they both sit down on either side of him. Natsu's warm, like always. Lucy leans her head on his shoulder slowly falling to sleep.

"I love you both," Natsu says with a yawn, falling asleep quick like Lucy. "G' night."

"I love you too Natsu," Gray says. He's more awake than Lucy and Natsu. "Love you Lucy."

"Love you," Lucy mutters. She is fading fast. "Night."

 

* * *

 

Lucy wakes up with a sore back on the top off all her other problems, but she finds that now she's on a bed and both Gray and Natsu are gone.

Blinking slowly, she looks outside to see that the sun has risen, and must have been up for some time for Natsu to be up. The room's basically the same, but now there's a bed.

Lucy sits up, everything still aching, but she stretches to try and get some of the knots out of her back. She's basically immobile, stuck on the bed with her broken leg, with nothing to do until Gray and Natsu come back. Well, not nothing.

She pulls the notebook out of her coat, still completely intact, thank Mavis. She pulls out her pen, but it was snapped in half by something, completely useless. So she flips through the pages she's filled out, reminding her of what good things she's been through before that adventure. There's the last entry before she came to Minecraftia, meeting Natsu and Gray, and all their adventures after that. She doesn't look at any bad parts, any encounters that almost led to death, and she doesn't read anything about their latest adventure, burying the pain. She instead smiles as she recalls all of their mishaps, those adventures that led to laughter.

"Hey Lucy you up?" Natsu bursts through the front door, looking the same.

"Yeah," Lucy replies as she closes her journal. "Where have you and Gray been?"

"Gray's looking in the village trying to find a doctor," Natsu explains, walking over to the crafting table. He has a wooden sword in his hand, and it looks a bit bloody. "I was out getting beds-once I got enough wool for one I came back and made you one. Nice surprise, huh?"

"Yeah, thank-you," Lucy moves a hand back feeling the soft fabric of the bed. "Did you get enough wool for two?"

"Yep! And enough wood! I had to cross a giant chasm to get to those colorful trees, but that'll be good for mining when me and Gray go later," Natsu continues.

"What about me?" Lucy asks.

Natsu pauses to look at her, scanning her before giving the verdict, "No. Not with your leg."

Lucy huffs. She didn't want to feel immobile while Gray and Natsu got to explore the new land, "You both are wounded too."

"Yeah, but we didn't get hit with the blunt of the attack," Natsu says, quieter. Lucy can tell he feels a bit guilty, that she got hurt so bad. Gray probably does too.

"It's alright Natsu," Lucy says. She outstretches her arms and he immediately walks over, allowing her to wrap him in a hug. He hugs her back around the shoulders, staying still for a minute or two. They let go and Lucy tugs on Natsu's shoulder. He leans down so she can press a kiss on his lips, moving back to whisper, "It's not your fault. It's not yours or Gray's fault."

Natsu doesn't say anything, instead just looking into Lucy's eyes with worry. He slightly nods his head in understanding, and hugs her around the waist. Lucy leans her into the crook of his neck, arms laying on his shoulders. It feels right.

"I won't let you get hurt like this again," Natsu says softly, yet full of feeling. Lucy squeezes him, and presses a kiss into his neck. She wonders if both her boyfriends are this protective.

Natsu lets go and looks at the crafting table, "I should finish making the beds. After this I gotta make a pickaxe and go mining."

"Is Gray in the village?" Lucy asks and Natsu hovers over the crafting table.

"Yep," Natsu makes a bed, and places one next to Lucy. "He's finding a doctor to set your leg, and to get some medical supplies from. He's also finding food."

"Because you can't cook?" Lucy teases.

"I can cook!" Natsu tries to bolster himself up, setting the third bed on the other side of Lucy. "You've had my bread!"

"It's burnt bread," Lucy replies with a laugh.

Natsu pouts, and turns back to the crafting table, pulling a wooden pick axe out, "I gotta go mine stuff." He heads towards the door but stops at the bed to lean over and kiss Lucy before leaving, "I'll find Gray and tell him that you're up, okay?"

"Thank-you," Lucy replies. "Also, find something interesting out there-I'll die of boredom if I'm stuck in here while you two go on grand explorations without me." She doesn't use the word adventure. There wasn't anything "epic" about that adventure.

"I will," Natsu answers with a smile. He walks towards the door.

"Stay safe!" Lucy adds as he exits. She can see his pink-haired head through the window as he goes into the village to find Gray. She opens her journal once more. A few moments later she has to close it as the door opens again.

"No, no, n-o, don't come in yet. Stop. Stop. Stay-sto-st-sta-stop! St-ay he-re," Gray tries to talk to the villager trailing behind him, dressed in clean white robs. They hurriedly whooped over Gray's attempts to communicate with them, but finally lets them into the house. They scurries around, looking at the furniture and at Lucy. Gray sighs, and turns to Lucy, "Hey."

He walks over and leans over the new triple bed to kiss Lucy, and Lucy leans over to ease the struggle. It's a short kiss, but nice. Lucy guesses that Gray's gone back to him more reserved self now that the worry and struggle is over.

"Did you sleep well?" he asks, occasionally looking over at the villager who is walking around aimlessly now, silent whopping to themselves.

"Alright, it was a nice surprise to wake up in a bed. You?"

"Okay enough," Gray says, rubbing his neck. Lucy can guess that it's sore.

"Is this the doctor?" Lucy asks.

"I guess," Gray shrugs. "They're the best I could find and looked the most concerned when I said that you were hurt." Lucy wasn't sure how he looked concerned-they seemed a bit more concerned with their shelves. "I think I can trade some wheat with them for medical supplies so I'll have loot around the village farms later."

"We also have to get food," Lucy reminds him. Her stomach growls a bit, but it's hard to hear over the villager.

"I got this," Gray pulls a couple loaves of bread out of a back. It would be good enough for now. Lucy takes them happily, and Gray leans in so she can give him a thank-you kiss on the cheek. Gray turns to the villager as Lucy rips a bit of one of the loaves, beginning to chew. It's soft and fresh, though it didn't offer up much flavor. Lucy's happy anyways.

"She's the one that's hurt," Gray grabs the villager’s attention, pointing to Lucy. The villager stops, and immediately walks over to the bed. He looks at Gray and whoops a bit. Gray just continues on, "Her leg's broken."

Lucy moves the sheets and shifts to the edge of the bed. Her leg looks horrible, most parts are black and purple and hurts badly.

The villagers looks down, removing his hands from his sleeves and softly touching the bruised skin with his calloused hands. They looks at Gray and whoop a bit. They then pull out some sticks and gauze and got to work. They set the leg perfectly, but it hurt. Lucy ended up gripping onto Gray's hand, squeezing hard and biting down as the Villager wraps gauze around her legs and the sticks to keep in place.

When the villager is done, he hands Gray a whole bunch of other stuff: basically anything that could be found in a first aid kit. They whoop, nod their head, and leave.

"I wonder what he was saying," Lucy says, looking down at her leg.

"I don't really care," Gray says as he sits down at the side of the bed. "But this is everything we need-for free too."

"We should probably get washed first before putting any of this stuff on-most of the wounds probably scabbed over anyway," Lucy adds.

"Right," Gray looks at her leg. "And right after he set your leg. I wish we had casts."

"We can find him again," Lucy reassures.

"They all look the same," Gray argues.

Lucy's stomach growls again so she leans over to grab the loaves she left on the other side of the bed. She splits one and hands a half to Gray, who takes it cautiously. They begin to eat in silence, just happy to be with each other.

* * *

  
            "I wonder if any of the Villagers will be watching," Natsu peaks over the ridge.

"I doubt," Gray grumbles fumbling with his tie as he tries to get it off. "They don't ever leave it."

Lucy looks around the surrounding area-it's a peacefully, green plain full of wildlife. She can see birds flying and rabbits hopping in the distance-all from her spot sitting down on the slope by the river.

"Hey look! A cat and bear are fighting!" Natsu shouts excitedly. He's standing behind Lucy, looking back on the village. "Two gold on the bear!"

Gray and Lucy don't challenge him. They don't even have any gold yet, and they barely have any iron.

"Bear bear bear bear bear bear-holy shit that cat just fucking destroyed that bear!" Natsu shouts. "Holy shit that was so sweet! Were you two watching!?"

"No," Gray replies. Lucy tries to twist around, but it's hard when she can barely move her leg without it hurting.

"You know what's blue and red and white all over?" Natsu asks.

"What?" Lucy asks. She was genuinely curious about where this joke was going to lead.

"That cat after destroying that bear!" Natsu exclaims.

"What's the blue and white part?" Lucy asks.

"The cat. He's blue and white. I want that cat. How do I get a cat?" Natsu asks as he turns around, plopping down next to Lucy.

"Fish, but you have to build a fishing pole and go fishing yourself," Lucy explains.

"But you don't have the patient to fish," Gray adds.

"Says who?" Natsu counters.

"I do, fishing's too boring for you," Gray elaborates.

"I've never even been fishing. It might not be boring," Natsu argues.

"I have-and it's boring. You can fish in this river, but when I went fishing it was in the middle of a lake in the middle of nowhere. A metal boat, eighty degrees outside, I had to wear a life jacket, and I didn't even catch a fish. It was four hours of watching the water to see if something moves," Gray explains.

"Yeah, but this is a river," Natsu tries to argue.

Gray throws his tie to the side, quickly then taking off his ruined shirt and pants-only leaving his boxers, "Are we going to bath or just talk about fishing?"

"Right," Natsu jumps and turns to Lucy to help her. Lucy gets up and leans on the crutch Natsu hastily made, it is strong, but definitely not the best he could have done. He made it quickly so they could all go down to the water together.

Natsu took off his clothes fast-but not as fast as Gray, who sometimes had a hard time keeping his clothes on. He stripped down to his boxers in a minute. He did keep on his scarf though, a scarf his father gave him and is still in good condition, though it needs to be washed and needs a few stitches. A dip in the river would give it the wash it needs, though they would need to give it to the tailor to fix since Lucy didn't have a sowing kit.

Lucy took longer since she is stuck to one leg and leaning on the crutch. She sheds her coat with ease, slowly fumbling with the buttons of her shirt and taking that off. She pulls her skirt down to the ground and steps out of it, leaving it there because she can't really bend down. This now just left underwear-for all three of them.

They've all seen each other naked before, even before they got together-the main cause was usually walking into the bathroom at the wrong time or walking in when someone was changing. After they had gotten together on their adventure, they did share a night or two of passion in the checkpoints provided to them when they probably should have resting in one of their only safe spots, but that didn't matter now because they moved away from that.

They all shed the rest of their clothes at the same time and got in the river-cold against their bare skin but healing. Lucy could feel the river wash away all the dirt and blood from the adventure, and it also lifted away any pain remaining. Lucy could finally see her skin clean from the last thing connecting her to that cursed world.

The deepest part of the river went up to Lucy's belly button, and she couldn't really crouch. Natsu's floating on his back after diving straight in, and Gray disappears under the water for a quick moment, only to come back up and wipe the wet hair out of his eyes.

"You look like a wet dog Gray," Natsu teased.

"You too," Gray argues.

"I can cut your guys’ hair later," Lucy offers. She needed a trim herself, as they didn't have time to do much self-maintenance these past few months.

"Thanks Luce," Natsu says as he floats by. He stands up quickly with a splash. "Want me to help you get underwater?"

"Sure," Lucy's a bit surprised at the offer, but accepts. Natsu comes up behind her, and puts his hands on her back.

"This'll be a little like a trust fall, I guess," Natsu tries to explain.

"Well I trust you, if that's anything," Lucy looks over her shoulder. That caught Natsu off-guard. As moves her head back he doesn't move for a while.

He finally speaks up though, "I actually don't know what else so do so sorry Lucy." He wraps his arms around her waist and falls back. She lets out a surprised yelp as he drags her under with his weight. He leg, thankfully, is not hurt, but she's still shocked as she surfaces. She's floating, both legs out straight, holding onto the crutch with one hand and treading water with the other. Natsu comes back up giggling madly.

"Never mind I _don't_ trust you," Lucy hisses, pulling the hair out of her eyes.

"Sorry I couldn't think of any other way!" Natsu argues, still laughing.

"Still dickish," Gray says as he walks over. "You could have lean her in all John the Baptist-like."

Natsu's face scrunches up in confusion, "I have no idea who that is."

"Sorry, forgot you didn't come from a world like mine and Lucy's," Gray replies. "You came from Disneyland."

"Why do you call it? It was just a magical world!" Natsu argues.

"Exactly, Disneyland, the most magical place on earth," Gray explains.

"Well, this is Minecraftia," Lucy points out.

"True," Gray agrees.

They continue to float around in the river for another half an hour, at least until became chilled enough to get out of the water and out of the range of Natsu's and Gray's splash fight.

Their clothes are ruined, so they can't wear them again. Thankfully, in Gray’s expedition to find a doctor he ran across various other villagers of other professions, like the librarian, the beekeeper, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, and the tailor. They all stopped at the tailor's shop before heading down to the river, explaining carefully that they want the exact same copy of the clothes they're wearing, but not in tatters. The tailor measured them up, and gave them villager robes for the time being before they went on their way.

Lucy picks up one of the plain brown robes, neatly folded on the ground and wraps herself in it as Gray and Natsu finish their splash fight. It's surprisingly soft, and warm from laying in the sun. Lucy checks her leg, and the cast has fared well for going underwater. The villager doctor was a pretty good doctor.

Natsu and Gray stumble out of the river soon enough picking up robes of their own and putting them on. They pick up their ruined clothes and trudge back into the village, as the sun is beginning to set.

In the village, the villagers watch the trio walk through the gravel paths of their village barefoot and laughing at Natsu's stupid jokes. They probably had never seen a rambunctious crew as theirs pass through.

They enter their house and wipe the gravel off their feet near the door before sitting down around the table. Natsu had found coal while mining so they could add another type of food to their bland diet-baked potatoes. Yes, they were living in the lap of luxury with amazing meals like bread, carrots, and baked potatoes. Finally, once all outside is dark, they get into bed. It's the first time they're all in a comfortable bed together since the adventure.

"What are we going to do?" Lucy asks as Natsu and Gray settle beside her. Gray's on his back, eyes closed and hands behind his head. Natsu is laying on his side facing Lucy, looking like he was going to wait for Lucy to close her eyes.

"Sleep?" Natsu guesses.

"No, I mean like what are we going to do in this world?" Lucy tries to rephrase it.

"We've lived in a village before, why not just do it again?" Natsu answers.

"That village was empty, this one is full of life and people," Lucy argues.

"We took over one of their houses," Gray points out.

"And yet all the villagers are being very kind to us," Lucy states. "Fixing my leg, making clothes for us."

"Well then we'll stay here until we're ready to leave," Natsu proposes. "We aren't really in a place to go out into the world and make a stake for ourselves-like we don't even have clothes at the moment. Or shoes."

"We'll have to go to the shoemaker tomorrow," Gray says with a yawn.

"When will the clothes be done?" Lucy asks.

"I dunno. I can't understand Villagers," Gray grumbles. He's tired, and is fading fast.

"We'll check tomorrow," Natsu says. "Jeez, we already have a lot on our plate."

"And we need more supplies. You did get an iron pick axe, right?" Lucy asks.

"Yeah," Natsu answers.

"So maybe, hopefully, you two can find diamonds when you mine tomorrow," Lucy suggests. "We also need gold to pay the tailor."

"Sounds good," Natsu says lazily. Gray's breath has slowed down, so he's fallen asleep. Natsu wraps an arm around Lucy's waist before continuing, "Night Lucy. Love you."

Lucy kisses him on the forehead before closing her eyes, "Love you too."

 

* * *

 

Lucy wakes up before both Natsu and Gray, just like how it used to be. It is reliving to fall back into the same pattern that they once had before the adventure messed them all up. Lucy looks around, and out the window she can see that villagers are already up about. Since she would have nothing better to do other than wait for gray and Natsu to get up, she scoots out of bed (the woes of being stuck in the middle) and throws on one of the villager robes. Leaning on her crutch, she leaves the house and walks through the village.

It's a quaint start to the day, the sun had only begun its crawl up the sky. There's not a cloud in sight, it should be another nice day.

The villagers whoop and grunt as Lucy pass by, and she's stopped by a villager in white robes-the doctor from yesterday. They scan her body, hands politely tucked into their sleeves, and checking her leg.

"It's doing fine, thank-you," Lucy says. They whoop a bit, happy with the answer, bow their head and continue on their way.

Lucy makes it to the tailor's shop, and knocks before entering. She can hear a grunt through the door so she opens it up, and peaks her head in. The tailor looks up from their work, hands moving with extreme precision as they sow a sleeve on a shirt, the size of it looks like it's going to be Natsu's.

"Uh, sorry to disturb you, but I just wanted to check and see how your progress was going," Lucy answers, taking a small step into the house.

The tailor grunts, and pauses their works to move to another table. They pulls out three stacks of clothes, and three pairs of villager sandals. They grunt a bit, and point to the clothes.

"You're done already?" Lucy asks, fully entering the house. "That's amazing!"

The tailor bows his head a little adverting their eyes to look back to their work. They point to the station, and grunt.

"You're . . . making more sets?" Lucy guesses. The tailor nods. They push the sets he's completely towards Lucy and goes back to their work table, picking up the needle again. Lucy puts all three piles into one pile, but she drops on pair of sandals onto the ground so she doesn't have to hurt her feet on the gravel path walking back to the house. "Thank-you very much! We'll bring the payment tomorrow, alright?"

The tailor grunts, lifting a hand to wave awkwardly as Lucy leaves. Lucy begins to realize that even though she, Gray and Natsu can't understand the villagers, they sure do understand them.

Lucy walks back to the house, balancing all their new clothes in one hand while using the other to move the crutch. As she opens the door, she sees Gray quickly putting on a robe, and Natsu still snoring on the bed.

"Lucy!" Gray looks a relived, pausing his hurried dressing.

"Hey, the tailor finished one set of clothes," Lucy says, placing them on the table. She looks up at Gray, "Are you okay?"

"Didn't know where you went," Gray explains in a low voice.

"Sorry, I hoped that I could get the clothes before either of you woke up," Lucy explains, shuffling a bit closer to rest a hand on his shoulder. "Thought I could get an early start to the day since I was up."

"You're still wounded," Gray points out. Lucy realizes the stem of his worry.

"We all are, but I can walk around with the crutch," Lucy counters. "I'm not going to sit around all day while you two wait on me. That was the life I ran away from, and just because I have a broken leg doesn't mean I can't help. I can't go mining or exploring, but I can work with the villagers."

Gray still seemed a bit worried, "Alright. Just at least tell us when you're leaving next time."

Lucy lifts her hand to cup his face and press a kiss to his lips, "I will."

Gray shifts towards the table, "The tailor finished one set for us all?"

"They also gave up some sandals for the time being," Lucy adds. "And they're making more."

"They're good," Gray states, pulling out the folded clothes that are his. "Wanna change?"

"Sure," Lucy pulls out her own clothes, white coat, blue button-up shirt, gray skirt, and some underwear. Lucy noticed the Villagers don't give much attention to them being naked, probably because to their standards, the trio aren't very attractive, but the tailor still did a nice job with her underwear.

The clothes fit great, probably even better than their old set because they all stole those clothes from an abandoned town in their first world together. Lucy wonders if villagers take tips, and they can offer something extra to the tailor for going out of their way to make more sets and that the clothes are well made in general.

Waiting for Natsu to wake up, Gray and Lucy push his new clothes to the side and have a breakfast of baked potatoes while conversing about the plans of the day.

"We should probably try to find some chickens, pigs or cows of the sort," Gray says in between mouthfuls of the baked potatoes. "To diverse our diet at least."

"Sounds nice," Lucy agrees. "We also need more iron, and gold to pay the tailor."

"I'll have to buy a pick axe from the blacksmith because we don't have enough iron to make another one. We have enough to make a sword though," Gray explains. "There's also a bunch of different ores in the ground. We keep on finding stuff like copper and aluminum."

"Get it. Who knows how useful it will be in the long run," Lucy advises. She pauses and thinks for a moment, "This world's much more diverse than any one we've been in before."

"Right," Gray agrees. "It's nice. It doesn't get boring as fast."

"But if there's more diverse animals and ores, does that mean that there are more different types of monster?" Lucy questions. Gray says silent. They don't want to think about what else they may have to face out at night beyond zombies, creepers, skeletons and spiders.

"Let's hope we don't have to find out," Gray says solemnly.

They're distracted by the rustling as sheets as Natsu rolls over in the bed, moving his arm trying to see if there's anyone next to him. He looks like he's trying to make a snow angel while drunk. He finally lifts his head up barely to scan the room, finally finding Gray and Lucy.

"When did you guys get clothes?" he asks sleepily.

"Got them from the tailor this morning. We have your clothes, and there are sandals for you too," Lucy explains.

Butt-naked (excluding his scarf), Natsu gets up and stumbles over to the table, grabbing his clothes and clumsily putting them on. He doesn't even bother buttoning up his vest yet, and just lets his tie hang around his neck because he has no idea how to tie it. He lets the sandals drop to the floor before sitting down and resting his head on the table.

"We have breakfast," Gray says. Natsu's head shoots up, and Gray passes him a baked potato.

"We gonna get real food today?" Natsu grumbles and he half-heartedly begins to pick at his breakfast.

"Yeah, we'll try," Gray answers.

"We'll all have to stop at that shoemaker before you two leave to mine," Lucy adds to the itinerary. "And I may go around the village today to see what else I can do."

"There's a library," Gray says. He doesn't add anything onto it, but Lucy's glad for the information.

"Thanks," Lucy replies. Maybe she won't completely die of boredom, if the librarian is willing to lend out books to her and she can read them.

"So shoemaker and then mining?" Natsu asks.

"We'll visit the blacksmith too," Gray adds.

"Sounds busy," Natsu grumbles.

"We have to get back on our feet. This is a fresh start," Lucy explains.

"Alright," Natsu agrees, finishing his potato though Lucy and Gray were still eating theirs. "Is hunting for food on the list of things to do too?"

"Yeah," Gray answers. After that, Gray and Lucy finish their breakfasts quickly and they all start their busy day.

 

* * *

 

Over the next few days, it's pretty much the same schedule. Gray and Natsu go out to mine or hunt while Lucy works around the village getting clothes, shoes, weapons, tools, books, food and whatever they need. Lucy really doesn't like being in this housewife position, but she can't do more with her broken leg. At least she's doing stuff.

Gray and Natsu bring back an abundance of resources. Iron, gold, copper, aluminum, and more. They also find precious gems such are rubies, sapphires and emeralds; they're as hard as a diamond and trading with the villagers become easier with emeralds, which was once the rarest gem. They find a couple diamonds, but not much. They also manages to find a few cows, bringing more nutrients into their meals. Gray also finds some apples from trees while Natsu grabs some berries from bushes in the forest.

Lucy works with the tailor to make more clothes, not just more sets of the same clothes but also pajamas and clothes for lazy days. The shoemaker delivers the shoes and Lucy talks with them to get various types of heels for herself, once she can walk properly again. The doctor checks in with her often, and Lucy gets more medical supplies from him for the long run. The beekeeper happily trades a jar of honey for some emeralds, just to add some sweetness to their meals. The blacksmith knows how to make steel weapons and tools, steel being stronger than iron, and gives each of the trio a complete set for an armful of emeralds. The gardener gives Lucy some different seeds, used to grow berry bushes. All of the villagers seem happy to help, probably thankful for the traffic in their village.

On their fifth day in the village, Natsu makes a fishing rob and declares that he's going to cat a fish to get a cat. Specifically the blue cat that killed the bear. Gray says that he'll just work around the same area as Natsu so help isn't that far away.

Lucy doesn't have much to do that day, so she stays in the house and reads one of the many books happily given to her by the librarian. The village library had books in English, much to Lucy's relief.

As she is getting to the climax of one of the books, the door of the house bursts open. Natsu's standing there, half-drenched, and carrying a disgruntled blue and white cat in his hands.

"I did it Lucy!" Natsu shouts proudly, running over to the bed and dropping his new cat on the sheets. "I caught a cat! I got one fish, fed it to him, and he loved me instantly! Gray said it would take like twenty, it only took one!"

The small blue cat didn't look much like a bear-killer. He had curious brown eyes that gaze around at its new surroundings, pausing for a moment to lick its paw. Lucy tentatively holds up a hand, and he instant nuzzels his head against it, like a domisticated cat. Lucy laughs as he rolls onto his back, rubbing his scent into the sheets.

"Are you sure this is the cat that killed the bear?" Lucy asks. The blue cat gets back up and being to explore, setting onto Lucy cat to rub his body across her stomach.

"Yes," Natsu explains. "He became a lot calmer after I gave him the fish."

The cat turns to Natsu, ears perked up at the words 'fish'. Lucy laughs, "I think he's expecting more."

"Then I gotta go and fish some more," Natsu sighs.

"What's his name?" Lucy asks, petting the cat's head. He leans into the touch.

"Hhm . . . I was thinking Happy," Natsu states.

"Happy," Lucy repeats. "Sounds good."

The door opens and Gray comes in, backpack swung around his shoulder and heavy with materials, "You could've told me when you were coming back."

"Sorry," Natsu shrugs sheepishly. "I gotta cat though."

Gray drops the backpack by the furnace and comes over to the bed, watching the cat with careful eyes. He looks to Natsu, "This is the cat that killed a bear?"

"He became more docile when I gave him the fish!" Natsu argues. Happy looks at Natsu again at 'fish'.

"Well, it works with wolves and steak, must work for cats and fish," Gray replies. Happy looks at him. He turns back around as Lucy continues to scratch his head. Gray gives Happy an unimpressive look (as Lucy knew he wasn't much of an animal person) before continuing, "We have to get back to work."

"Do we really need all of this?" Natsu asks. "I kinda think we have enough materials."

"Not building materials," Gray states. Gray's the architect, plain and simple. He takes his job seriously, even though he does most of his planning on the spot.

"Like what?" Natsu questions.

"I'm not sure. We can get a bunch of cobblestone and cook it, or maybe we can use wood," Gray begins to talk. "There's a bunch of different trees so maybe we can find some with an interesting color."

"Dear Mavis save me," Natsu groans before Gray can continue on. Gray smacks Natsu upside the head, but not with that much force. Natsu grins a bit, seeing that he got under Gray's skin quickly.

"Let's go," Gray states. "Bye Lucy."

"Yeah, bye!" Natsu says as he follows Gray through the door, tripping over himself. "Stay with Lucy Happy!"

"Bye guys!" Lucy says before they can close the door. Happy seems contempt in the house, allowing Lucy to stroke him as she continues reading her book.

Later, when Gray and Natsu come back, Lucy and Natsu go out to fenced garden to pick any crops there are ready as Gray starts to smelt the ores he got early. Through the window, she can see Gray on the bed rubbing Happy with a look on his face she had never seen-it looks like Gray's being subject to cuteness overload. Lucy smiles with a soft chuckle, deciding to not alert Natsu about this.

 

* * *

 

On the seventh day, Lucy could feel that the trio was getting close to being ready to leave. Though Gray hadn't found a suitable building material yet, Lucy had traded a heft half stack of gold and five emeralds for a device labeled 'NEI'. It's nothing like Lucy's ever seen before, but as she excitedly moves through the pages, she figures out what she wants to do in this world.

The NEI gives the recipes for _everything_ a person can make in this world. It has everything, for magical items to machines that will generate energy from the sun to jetpack. Anything. Lucy knows that she makes these machines, and it would make all of their lives easier. Lucy's itching to get started, but there's no room. They had five furnaces running to smelt all of the ores, and all of the chest are filled with the materials they had picked up so far. They need to expand.

However, there's a small fear residing inside her, starting from the disastrous end of their adventure to what had happened the prior night.

_As the sun began to set, Lucy made her way back to the house, Happy waiting for her as she sat on the bed and opened up a book. Something wasn't right, as Natsu and Gray weren't back yet._

_As it gets darker outside, she gets up and looks out the window opening the door for a moment to look through the gravel streets. All the villagers are rushing into their own homes, so where are Natsu and Gray?_

_Lucy sits back on the bed, stroking Happy and talking to him to try and quell her anxiety. They're both armed with steel swords and they made some iron armor yesterday. Nothing really bad could happen to them. They've seen creepers, zombies, skeletons and spiders before, and it’s not even that early. They'll be fine._

_Lucy was about to get up and grab a sword from the chest to go out there and look for them herself, even with her broken leg, when the door opened and closed with a slam. Natsu and Gray are standing in the house, swords at their side and breathing heavily from running. Lucy jumped up and pulled them in for a tight hug, not wanting to let them go._

_"Lucy," Natsu squeaks eventually. "I can't breathe."_

_She let go and began to let her emotions out, "Where were you two!? Its night, why didn't you come back earlier!?"_

_Lucy swore she wouldn't cry, but the tears are close._

_"Natsu found some iron so we stopped to get it before leaving. That delayed us," Gray explained._

_"Sorry," Natsu apologized genuinely._

_"Lives over iron," Lucy stated simply. They nod their head in agreement._

_"Yeah, I'm not going out at night anymore," Natsu agreed._

_"Why?" Lucy asked._

_"Monsters. Bunch of different ones," Natsu explained. "We saw a wolf man and a scorpion and there were these green giant guys in the distance and there was this ghost guy and this weird ball of light that was shooting lightning!"_

_Lucy remembered talking to Gray about this, with the diverse environment, it also meant diverse monsters._

_"We'll just have to be more careful," Gray stated. "But we're fine Lucy. I promise."_

Lucy looks up as Gray and Natsu come in.

"I don't think we have any more room for anything," Gray says as he drops his backpack by the furnace. "Unless we take over another villager's house."

"True," Natsu agrees. He looks to Lucy and flops on the bed as he sees what she has in her hands, "Hey, whatcha got there?"

"It's called the NEI," Lucy explains. "It has the crafting recipes for everything we can make-and we can make over one thousand different items."

"Holy shit," Natsu exclaims as Happy walks over and steps on his back. Natsu doesn't flinch as Happy lays down and curls up in a ball.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of different machines that I want to make," Lucy explains. "It would make a bunch of tasks easier for us as we expand-and we need to expand if we're going to make any of these."

"So, time to move out?" Gray asks.

"Have you found something to build with?" Lucy asks.

"I think so," Gray walks over and hands Lucy a small white stone. "It's called marble. There’s a whole lot of it in the world, but definitely not as abundant as cobblestone. It'll still be good. I've already started to mine a holy bunch of it. You can usually find it in large clumps."

Lucy hands the rock back, "That's good! All we need to do is find a place to build."

"We should check out in the plains," Natsu suggests. He's currently trying to pet Happy, who's still laying on his back. "It's flat so we won't have to move much dirt. And we're still close to the village."

"Can we go now?" Lucy asks. She's getting excited, she wants to expand and build.

"Sure, it's only noon," Natsu agrees. "Up for it Gray?"

Gray shrugs, "Why not?"

It's decided. They grab some food for a lunch out in the plains (after all who doesn't like a picnic) while surveying the lands. They go far from the village, near the river where they bathed in and Natsu caught his fish to tame Happy. They spot they settle to eat on is in between the village and the autumnal forest, a nice open area with a few shallow caves underground.

"We should just have lunch together more often," Lucy says after finishing her sandwich. Natsu had scarfed his down long ago and Gray finished a few seconds before her. "Lunches like this."

"Yeah, especially when we're not tired," Gray agrees. Breakfast is rushed, as the day's busy while dinner, although slower, is quiet since they're all half asleep.

"Maybe once we get this new base up and running we'll be close enough to congregate for lunch," Lucy hopes wistfully. The villager who had sold her the NEI also had a system where you could talk to another person from miles away, it fit inside your ear and a microphone came out of it. She'd have to figure out how much she would need for three.

"Sounds good," Gray agrees, taking a long drink from his canteen. He turns to Natsu, who's standing up and surveying the distance behind them, "What are you even looking at?"

"There's a hill," Natsu explains.

"There are a bunch of hills," Gray counters.

"This one looks weird," Natsu says, squinting his eyes. "I'm gonna go look at it!"

"Natsu wait!" Lucy tries to grab his attention but he's already off, running towards a large hill in the distance. Lucy looks at it while Natsu's figure grows smaller against it, "He's right, that hill looks a bit out of place."

"I can go after him," Gray offers.

"No," Lucy states. "We should start looking at where we want to build. He'll be fine." Gray looks at her with a cocked eyebrow. She mainly said that reassure herself. She begins to distract herself with work, "Help me up. Let's mark out a place."

They walk a bit away from their picnic, to a completely flat area. The village looks like a toy in the distance, and the hill Natsu ran towards looks like a little bump.

"This is great," Lucy's eyes light up as she looks around, imagining what their base would look like. "We can have the main house here."

"Like house house? Or work area?" Gray asks.

"Work area. We can build a house later, and probably just over the beds when we have a safe, sectioned off area," Lucy explains.

"Not like, an actual house though?" Gray checks.

"Yes, so we can get used to living on our own again, instead of in the village," Lucy explains.

"Won't the machines be annoying?" Gray asks.

"Hopefully not" Lucy replies. "The area should be pretty big, I don't know how much space I'll need for the machines."

"Alright, let's say here to here," Gray runs around in a large square, placing down blocks of marble to show the area.

"A little bigger, just move these two a foot or so to the right," Lucy explains, pointing to the blocks closest to her.

"Alright," Gray picks them up and moves them as Lucy suggested.

"Perfect," Lucy looks at the size of the area. "Later we can start digging."

"Or I can just build on top of it," Gray suggests.

"True," Lucy agrees. "What do you see as the design right now?"

"Glass roof," Gray states.

"We'll need sand," Lucy replies.

"Natsu can dig it up," Gray adds.

"Where is he, anyway?" Lucy looks off in the direction he ran. She can see a pink-headed figure growing in the distance, heading towards them. Natsu's followed by a glowing ball of light-a wisp. Lucy whips her head around, "Natsu's in trouble."

Gray draws the sword at his side, and Lucy's hand hovers over hers. She can't fight as well, burdened by her broken leg. She can soon hear Natsu's panicked yell as he comes closer, and she can now see him turn around and hit the wisp with his sword as it ducks down until it bursts into a firework display., quickly fizzing out.

"Oh, hey guys!" Natsu can see Lucy and Gray as he turns around. He begins to walk towards them, now that he's closer and not panicking, but falls into a hole. He quickly drags himself out and runs over, "I'm gonna make that little cave my magic base!"

"Magic base?" Gray questions.

"Yes, magic base," Natsu repeats. "Because I found a magic book." He reveals an old book engraved with gold and covered with worn leather. The cover show cases a strange image, with the words 'Thauminomicon' underneath.

"Where did you find this?" Lucy asks as Natsu opens it up to flip through the pages.

"In that one hill. It was a dungeon. I fell into that too, because the dungeon was a hole filled with spawners," Natsu explains.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asks.

"Yeah, they didn't lay a hand on me," Natsu brushes some soot off his shoulder. "I wasn't expecting that wisp though. I was in and out, and that wisp showed up."

"Most of this is in another language," Lucy states, running her fingers over the fragile pages.

"But the first couple pages aren't, they tell you how to get started," Natsu says, getting more excited. "I guess it'll be revealed as I start to learn more stuff and build more. But you guys know what this means, I can do magic again!"

Natsu once could do magic. Lucy had never seen it because the physics of Minecraftia nullified his abilities. He explained when they met that he was a very powerful mage, one that could control fire and cast spell to his will. He was raised by a fire dragon that one day disappeared, and during his search he ended up in the strange, forsaken lands that Lucy and Gray landed in as well. His obsession with flint and steel and TNT spurred for his wishes to once wield fire and magic as he once had.

"Let's hope that there's nothing with fire in there," Gray grumbles, looking back at the area he marked. "Should I start setting a foundation?"

"No, let's wait until tomorrow," Lucy says, laying a hand on Gray's arm.

"Is this where we're going to make our base?" Natsu asks, looking at the block Gray set down.

"Yeah," Gray replies. "We're going to go sand digging tomorrow. I'm going to make a glass ceiling."

"Nuh-uh," Natsu disagrees. "I'm gonna make that hole my mage base so I can start doing magic again."

"Why don't we just pick up our picnic and head back so we can start discussing plans in the house where it's safe," Lucy suggests.

Gray and Natsu don't argue. It's not close to night, but it may take them a while to get back to the village. Gray makes a tall marble marker so they can find the place of their future base later, and head back to pick up the remnants of their lunch and return to the village. Soon, they would be able to build their base, and call that their home.

 

* * *

 

The villagers seem worried when Lucy finishes up her last rounds. She collects a couple jars of honey, new steel tools, the last sets of clothes, the last pair of heels, and her last visit to the village doctor for a while. They grunt unhappily when Lucy says goodbye, as they know it may be a while until they actual see Lucy, or even Natsu and Gray, again. They will see their base grow in the distance, but actual won't see them.

"We'll come back," Lucy adds. "We'll still need clothes and shoes and medical supplies."

They still grunt and offer a small awkward wave, having adopted that parting gesture from Lucy, as she leaves.

"Did you get everything?" Natsu asks, carrying two of the beds. Happy is aimlessly walking around his feet, looking as though he was plotting to trip Natsu.

"Yes," Lucy replies, shouldering the backpack on the side of her good leg. "We'll be set for a while."

"The house is clear," Gray states, carrying the third bed out and closing the door behind him. "It looks like we weren't even there."

"Ready?" Lucy asks, feeling the excitement bubble in her.

"Ready," gray and Natsu reply at the same time, glaring at each other when they do.

They begin to head toward their base, _their home_ , as the sun begins to fall from the peak of the sky. It's not much, as the building that's slowly beginning to fill up with machines doesn't have a roof, as Gray paused for a while to build a small wooden cabin for the three of them. Natsu insisted that they could just live in the small area next to his 'thaumcraft cave', as it was completely sectioned off from the outside world apart from a walkway in between the cave and the machines building, but Gray wouldn't dare. He hadn't gotten to fix it up yet, and really just looked like a bunch of tables and cauldrons in a literal cave (which it was). No, gray built them a bonafide home over the course of three days-and it is perfect (okay, it needs plumbing but there isn't plumbing in the village either. Lucy would figure that one out soon).

It's shaping up. Lucy knows that it'll be grand-better than any shack they had constructed in the past. This was a fresh start, in a bigger world with more possibilities than before. It's a bright ray of hope after all the pain they went through in the old world.

They get there just before the sun falls. There isn't any furniture in the house aside from the beds now, and all of the chests filled with clothes and personal items lying around. Gray and Natsu plop the beds down in the bedroom and Happy makes himself comfortable on it as soon as they're down. Natsu moves Happy over so he can fall on the bed. Lucy joins him afterward, and then Gray.

"We have a lot of work cut out for us, don't we?" Lucy asks with a tired smile.

"Yeah," Natsu agrees. He rolls over onto his stomach and wraps an arm around Lucy's waist, pressing little kisses into her shoulder. Gray rolls over to face her too, but he just takes her hand and holds it. "I'm excited-I'm not even sure if I can sleep. I wanna keep on researching Thaumcraft. The next thing: an explosive."

"Dear Mavis no," Gray says. Natsu shoots him a look but Lucy laughs.

"I feel the same," Lucy sighs. "There are so many machines-I don't even know which ones are useful and which ones aren't."

"And there's actually stuff for me to build," Gray agrees. "I can build things that Natsu can't burn down."

"I can burn down this house," Natsu teases, but the look Gray gives him is completely serious.

"If you do that, there's nothing that can stop me from seriously harming you," Gray growls.

Lucy picks up her free hand to brush it across Gray's face, "You aren't going to do that."

"Ha," Natsu laughs, but Lucy's wasn't done.

"We can give him hell on earth without actually physically harming him," Lucy continues. Gray grins mischievously, and Natsu gulps.

Gray moves on, leaving Natsu to stew in his fear (as they had all seen what he can do with a flint and steel-burning down entire forests and villages), "Once I finish up your machine base Lucy, I'm going to fix up Natsu's base and refine the passage between the two."

"You're not touching my base," Natsu pouts.

"I am," Gray argues. "Maybe I can add a deck to the house too."

"Sounds lovely," Lucy can't help smiling. It's the first time a long time work like this-work they can actually enjoy, work that didn't involve surviving another night, work that kept them stable-and it is a good feeling-to feel contempt like this.

Lucy moves forward to kiss both Natsu and Gray, one at a time and slowly. This is the freedom she was looking for when she ran away from home, and it feels so good.

Once Lucy finishes kissing them, Gray and Natsu look at each before leaning over Lucy to kiss each other. This kiss a deeper and longer, and when they separate their eyes are half-lidded as they stare at each other.

Lucy puts and hand on both of their shoulders, sitting up slightly. This drags them into reality, their eyes widening and blushes beginning to form, but Lucy wants to opposite, "Are you two going to stare at each other or all we all going to do it together?"

Gray's blush deepens but a cocky grin spread across Natsu's face, "I like the way you think Luce."

Of course, there's no better way to really begin their new beginning than breaking in their new home.

Happy leaves the room after a few minutes when it starts to get louder.

It's heaven. It's freedom. It's their new beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> So that's that. As I said I had fun writing this, and I'll probably be writing more. I have a kinda prequel idea, and then them joining the main world (Hatfilms are my favorite so I have the most ideas for Natsu, Lucy and Gray (though I may write some Blackrock angst. That'll be Jellal and Erza. And there will be Flux Buddies stuff too with Gajeel and Juvia)). I hope you guys will stick around for more, and good day.


End file.
